MEMBER'S
EDITION BONUS CONTENT:Duan
Rong 7P says "Don't Help Your Opponent" in the attached article
translated by David Wong from the October 15, 2007 edition of The World
of Weiqi. Plus, Kazunari Furuyama is back with his monthly series
"Important, Fundamental Matters," looking today at Common Amateur
Mistake 110. And an extra bonus today: work your brain out with Yilun
Yang 7Ps "Hard Endgame Problem." Non-members: join the American Go
Association and get all this great content with every EJ! It's all just
a click
away!

U.S.
CONGRESS REGISTRATION
OPENS: Online
registration for the2008
US Go Congress is now open, reports
Director Peter Freedman. The 24th annual event - which attracts
hundreds of the nation's most dedicated go players -- runs August 2-9
in Portland Oregon and features major tournaments, lectures by
professional go players and more.

WORLD
OF WEIQI DONATES GO SETS: World of Weiqi has donated 400
sets of go stones, bowls and boards to the American Go Association,
reports AGA President Michael Lash. "This is a very generous donation,"
Lash told the E-Journal, "and on behalf of the American go community,
we'd like to thank World of Weiqi Editor in Chief Dayong Zhang for his
support of go in America." Lash also credited Ronghao Chen for
coordinating the donation, which will be used to distribute sets around
the country for loan to AGA chapters and teaching programs for youth.
The popular Chinese language go magazine is currently printed only in
Chinese, but the EJ - which has run game records and articles from WOW
in the past (like Duan Rong 7P's in today's Member's Edition) - is
exploring opportunities to publish more English translations of WOW
articles. "We hope this helps us build a lasting relationship for our
mutual benefit," added Lash.

YOUTH GO UPDATES:
Ing School Team Championships Begin; Free Go Sets For
Canadian Schools; New Youth Site Off To Roaring Start-
Ing School Team Championships Begin: Over two
hundred young players on fifty teams have now registered for the Ing
School Team Championships, reports the American Go Honor
Society (AGHS), which organizes the event. Sixteen teams registered
just before the registration deadline, evidence of the excitement of
young players across the nation and in Canada for what has now become
the single largest youth tournament held in North America. "This Ing
tournament has really invigorated my club," reports Fern Hill School,
Ottawa, team advisor Tyler Reynolds, "Now my kids are wanting me to
play with them on KGS every night!" Games began this past weekend, and
the first round will take place over the next two weeks. For pairings,
and the most recent standings on each round, click
here. "I am overjoyed that so many youth go players are
participating in the tournament," says AGHS Board Chair Matthew
Mallory. "I hope everyone plays well and enjoys the matches," Mallory
adds. The E-J will be reporting on each round and will feature
interviews and game commentaries as the event progresses. Photo: A student at Hebbville Academy
tries out the Elbow Tesuji; photo by Amy Nan
- Free Go Sets For Canadian Schools: A new
program to bring free equipment to school children in Canada has been
launched by the American Go Foundation (AGF) and the Canadian
Go Association (CGA). Now any school or youth program serving kids
under 18 can apply for the AGF's
classroom starter set. "The Starter Kit arrived today; the
kids will go crazy when I show them the new equipment on Wednesday,"
reports Hebbville Academy school teacher Amy Nan, from Nova Scotia. "We
only have one set of bi-convex stones and there are often arguments
about who gets to play with them each day. To have three more sets of
the 'preferred' shape is fantastic." The Fern Hill School in Ottawa is
another early recipient of the program, and both schools are
participating in the Ing team event (ING SCHOOL TEAM CHAMPIONSHIPS
BEGIN). The AGF is providing and distributing the equipment, and the
CGA is funding the program. Canadian citizens who wish to support the
program may make donations directly to the CGA,
U.S. citizens who want to help can make earmarked donations to the AGF.
Photo of the Fern Hill School
club in Ottawa by Tyler Reynolds.
- New Youth Site Off To Roaring Start: Over 3,000
unique visitors have dropped by the American Go Foundation's (AGF) new
youth website Tigersmouth
since the site launched a few weeks ago. The Tigersmouth forums have
been active with posts from kids across the country, and a room
specifically for Tiger's Mouth members on KGS was launched last week.
Kids and teens are playing each other and receiving teaching games
every day; one lucky 7 kyu even got a teaching game in with 18 year old
6 dan Calvin Lee. But it is the beginners who are benefiting the most,
with a friendly and encouraging online community just for kids. "I'm
really happy to of joined the Tiger's Mouth room! I met a new friend
and everything!" says 12-year-old Forum member Almeadia. The room will
also feature tournaments monthly, with a $50 prize budget for each.
Tournaments will select the best player in three ranges: 20-30 kyu,
10-19 kyu, and single digit kyu and higher. Winners will receive the go
book of their choice from any go vendor. The Tiger's Mouth KGS room is
a private room, open only to kids and teachers. To gain entry, you must
register as a member of Tiger's Mouth and post in the forum requesting
admission. - reported by Paul
Barchilon, EJ Youth Editor

MORE
USER-FRIENDLY WEBSITE COMING: The AGA is developing a
more up-to-date, user-friendly website. Working with
Internet4Associations, a professional website developer, the new
website will be a Content Management System (CMS) that's fully
integrated with a built-in database. "The CMS will enable us to update
web pages much more quickly and easily, improving the timeliness and
accuracy of information on the website," says AGA website project
manager Mark Rubenstein. "The database will open up a whole new world
of opportunities for us and our members," adds AGA President Mike Lash.
New features will include enable members to easily search for each
other by city, state, etc, as well as easily update personal
information and set preferences for how much information they wish to
share with other members. An improved events calendar is also planned,
with increased ability to list - and sign up for - events, such as
tournaments. The new website - which will have improved navigation and
a new interface -- will have also have exclusive content for members
and an online store. "We plan to have the new website completed before
the Congress," says Rubenstein, "Stay tuned!"

LEE
SEDOL SURVIVES TEEN SCARE TO WIN LG CUP: Lee
Sedol (l) 9P added a third current international title to his
collection this week, and it's
one of the most prestigious, but he had a real scare getting there. His
opponent in the finals of the 12th
LG Cup was a relatively unknown teenager, fellow Korean Han
Sanghoon (r) 2P, who has never won a professional tournament.
That Han was in the finals was the result of some impressive wins in
earlier rounds. He defeated
China's Gu
Li 9P in the second round and China's Liu
Jing 8P, who had just defeated Cho
Chikun 9P by a half point, in the third round. The semifinals
were next and included three Korean and one Chinese representative. Lee
polished off Hu
Yaoyu 8P of China, while Han defeated Korea's On
Sojin 4P. It must have been quite a shock to Lee -- one of
the strongest pros in the world -- when underdog Han won the first game
in the best-of-three-games finals. However, Lee came storming back to
take the last two and the title. It will be interesting to see what Han
does next.

CHO CHIKUN STAYS
ALIVE IN KISEI: Cho
Chikun (l) 9P hung on in the Kisei
title match, winning Game 5 against Yamashita
Keigo 9P, making the score 3-2 in Yamashita's favor. Cho won
on February 27-28 by 3.5 points. Yamashita is just a win away from
retaining the title for a third consecutive year; the two remaining
games are scheduled for mid-March. Cho has held this title eight times,
most recently in 1999; this is the first time he has played in the
title match since losing to O
Rissei 9P in 2000.

MOK JINSEOK TAKES
FIRST GAME IN MAXIM CUP FINALS: The new kids are in
town. Mok
Jinseok (r) 9P took the first game in the best-of-three Korean
Maxim Cup against Park
Yeonghun 9P. Both players are in their twenties. The Maxim
has had some memorable moments.
It's one of the two "open" tournaments won by Rui
Naiwei 9P (the other was the Kuksu)
and it's the only pro tournament in which the finals were between a
husband and wife (Rui again, versus her husband Jiang
Zhujiu "Jujo" 9P; she lost that one, but won the next year.) Lee
Sedol 9P, who has won the Maxim Cup for the last three years,
is not even in the finals this time. Park had a very good year in 2007,
winning the international Fujitsu
Cup by defeating Lee
Changho 9P, taking the GS
Caltex Cup by defeating Lee Sedol 9P, and also successfully
defending his Gisung
(Japanese: Kisei) title. Mok has been much less successful at winning
titles: despite being number one on the Korean list of pros winning the
most games in 2007 with 93 victories and a 76% winning rate, he's taken
no titles. With the first game of the Maxim Cup in hand, Mok is now one
win from his first title. The second
game is scheduled for March 8th.

GO QUIZ:
Round Up The Usual Suspects:
Many quiz veterans were among the 12 of 17 who got this week's quiz
answer, including Phil Waldron, Terry Fung, Kim Salomony, Ramon Mercado
and, of course, ultra precise Grant Kerr who details the answer - "Kato
Masao challenged 4 times: 1976, 1988, 1991, 1993..." He goes on to
comment that both Takemiya (3 guesses) and Rin (1) challenged three
times (and yes he gives the years). He also notes that Kobayashi Koichi
(1) won the title 8 times in a row. He then goes on to applaud Cho
Chikun's record...anyway, it was Kato. Congrats to Steve Fawthrop, this
week's winner, chosen at random from
those answering correctly.THIS WEEK'S QUIZ: Kato, Takemiya and Ishida Yoshio
made up the "Three Crows" of the Kitani Dojo. How many books authored
by this trio (or at least credited to them) have been translated into
English? For those who may spot a trick, the number I am looking for is
the total number of individual books, so a multi-volume set would count
as more than one - Is the correct answer 6, 7, 8 or 9? List the book
titles in the comment section for a Grant Kerr bonus point - click
here to submit your choice. -
Keith Arnold, Quizmaster

YOUR MOVE: Readers
WriteGU LI REAL "LAST MAN STANDING": "I read from
different sources that Gu Li (not Chang Hao 9P, as reported in last
week's EJ report on CHINESE WIN THEIR FIRST NONGSHIM CUP) was the last
man in the Chinese team," writes Romain Basset, "and he didn't play
since Chang Hao defeated all the remaining Korean and Japanese
players." Bassett (and the other sharp-eyed readers who
caught this) is correct; we were caught off-guard because we'd never
seen a team member in the Nongshim fail to play.

CAN'T STOP THE
MONKEY JUMP: Five Kyu-Level Playerby Motoko Arai
Let's move on. The five of us kyu-level
players continued to study and learn together. Especially for me, after
these epiphany-like experiences with Mr. A regarding seki and the bulky
five shape, I felt like the scales really fell from my eyes. Just
crumbled away. This is when I first began to realize the difference
between fretting over eyes and just kind of feeling whether stones were
alive or not.
When I say "feeling," I mean through a
kind of "life and death sense." I began to realize that, "Ah, life and
death problems are not just mere mathematical logic puzzles; they help
you understand life and death on the board." This realization had a
huge affect on me.
Which is to say, almost overnight, I became a go problems fanatic.
Until this point I had thought of them as clever puzzles. Now I
understood better, and life and death problems became my full-time
hobby.
So, back to the story. The five of us
continued to study together, and we each began to find our own favorite
ways of learning. "Mr. Circle looks for people to play online and then
asks them to teach him afterwards." "I heard that Mr. X has already
read seven go books!"
Yeah, yeah, so we're all doing our best,
right.
Mr. Circle on the internet...? But me...
online... definitely not. (I mean, for me, computer go or online go are
out of the question. I don't know if it's a computer problem, or a
mouse problem, or a problem with me, but whenever I've tried to play
online I always, always mis-click at least once or twice in a game.)
To lose because of your own poor playing
can still be satisfying, but to lose because your cursor slipped or the
mouse skipped-and thereby to lose simply because of a mechanical error
in placing a stone-don't you think that's just a bit too frustrating?
So, Mr. X has read seven go books...? I
mean, I love reading. But reading go books? Unless you carry a go board
around in your head, it's pretty difficult, and I find it flat out
impossible.
"Mr. Triangle found a local Go club
and..." Ah, this one is the worst, isn't it? I have no social skills,
and I have no intention of making a trip to my local go club! I mean,
even the thought of such a thing is scary, isn't it?
And certainly it's just because I'm so
against this that one day my husband came up to me and said: "Hey,
tomorrow we have an appointment in Shinano Ward, don't we? Before that,
would you mind if we stop off in Ichigaya Ward too?"Motoko Arai is an award-winning
science fiction author in Japan. Translated by Chris Donner from the
Nihon Kiin's Go Weekly (February 26, 2007 issue).

GO
CLASSIFIEDSELL IT, BUY IT OR TRADE IT HERE with over 12,000
go-players worldwide! Classified ads are FREE and run for 4 weeks;
email your ad to us now at journal@usgo.org
GO PLAYERS WANTED: Blowing Rock or Boone, NC. Looking for players in
Boone or Blowing Rock to play casual games with. Please contact emily.mount@gmail.com
(3/3)
FOR SALE: Complete set of Go World magazine, nos. 1-103. Pristine
condition. Owned by retired librarian. Read only on Sundays. Make me an
offer. Bob Barber komoku@earthlink.net
(3/3)KS:
Looking for Go players in Kansas (especially in the Wichita area) to
join the city's Go Club. For more information contact Andrew Wrinn
email: wichitagoclub@gmail.com
or visit our website
(2/25)GO
TEACHER WANTED: Baltimore, MD: AGA-rated 4k looking to become strong.
Teacher can be in the area or online, but must be willing to do at
least two intense one-on-one training sessions per month and oversee my
general study. Willing to negotiate payment. Please look at my games as
"notsomuch" on KGS to see if you can help me. If interested, please
contact Joseph at joseph.axilrod.craig@gmail.com
(2/25)GO
PLAYERS WANTED: Vernon Hills, IL: The new Lake County Baduk Club in
Vernon Hills, IL is looking for new members and possibly teachers.
Email xflamarialx@gmail.com
(2/18)GO
PLAYERS WANTED: Houston, TX: Looking for players in North West Houston
to start a go club. Please contact swsws@sbcglobal.net
(2/18)GO
PLAYERS WANTED: Portland, ME: I am looking for go players of all
strength and age to come play at the ME, Greater Portland Area Go Club
in Gorham, Maine. Contact me at eragon90902@maine.rr.com
or by phone at 207-839-2987. (2/11)GO
PLAYERS WANTED: Walla Walla, WA, at least 10k; am very bored with
online playing. contacts: walkskooter@yahoo.com
or, phone at (509) 526-4328. (2/11)

Published
by the American Go Association
Managing Editor: Chris Garlock
Assistant Editor: Bill CobbText
material published in the AMERICAN GO E JOURNAL may be reproduced by
any recipient: please credit the AGEJ as the source. PLEASE NOTE that
commented game record files MAY NOT BE published, re-distributed, or
made available on the web without the explicit written permission of
the Editor of the E-Journal. Please direct inquiries to
journal@usgo.org Articles appearing in the E-Journal represent the
opinions of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official
views of the American Go Association.

American
Go Association
P.O. Box 397
Old Chelsea Station
New York, NY 10113-0397